It's Time
by Azulixa
Summary: My oneshot/songfic/bonus chapter for Guns, Diamonds, and Lights. Anya and Erik each think about how their lives have changed after meeting one another, and they both ponder what it means to move on. Erik/Anya.


**A/N: He-llo! As promised, my one-shot/songfic/bonus chapter for my fic 'Guns, Diamonds, and Lights-The Playlist.' This story takes place about 6 months after the events of GDL. It's Time belongs to Imagine Dragons, and enjoy!**

_So this is what you meant  
When you said that you were spent  
And now it's time to build from the bottom of the pit  
Right to the top  
Don't hold back  
Packing my bags and giving the academy a rain check _

It was not as easy as it usually was for her. 3 boyfriends-the first, turned into her best friend; the 2nd, killed in a train accident; the 3rd, sort of vanished off the face of the earth. She had moved on easily from the last two. But did _he _count as the fourth? She would have liked to imagine that yes, he did. But it was harder when it came to him. She had fallen asleep before the spectacle could ever begin. She was never one for regretting anything, but if there was one thing, it would have been firing that last shot.

But she knew she had to move on, for herself, for him, for them. She had asked him to move on with his life, maybe get a nice ending-maybe not the ultimate happy ending, but one that he could look back on and smile, even if it was without her. She had succeeded in her own right, but sometimes, when she was sitting alone in a party, before her friends appeared, did he ever worm his way into her mind. She now sat on the roof of her house in St. Petersburg, having just sent her friends a message that she would not be going out that night.

_I don't ever want to let you down  
I don't ever want to leave this town  
'Cause after all  
This city never sleeps at night _

Maybe he had moved on too. No, that was unlikely. Unless...he was always trying to repay her for her kindness. He could have thought that was the price he had to pay. She pursed her lips and looked out at the snow, the lights of houses burning into the whiteness outside. If they ever met again, would she let him down for waiting for him the rest of her life? No. She had to go all the way. Still remember and smile, but stop living in that time.

_It's time to begin, isn't it?  
I get a little bit bigger, but then I'll admit  
I'm just the same as I was  
Now don't you understand  
That I'm never changing who I am_

According to her, she had not really changed throughout her ordeal. Still the same suave, life-loving gray-eyed actress. But something seemed a little different. She was now the quiet girl driving the car at 3 in the morning, wasted friends in the backseat, not the other way around. People would call her name in order to get back in conversations with her. She would skip out on parties and instead watch movies like _Fight Club _while eating Chinese food by herself.

No! She could not be changing. He fell for the red-headed, gray-eyed girl who didn't give a shit what people thought of her, for the girl who put on a show to shock people, for the girl who kicked life in the face and then bought a beer for. Not the girl who lived in the past. She shut her laptop with a bang, and then went inside to change.

_So this is where you fell  
And I am left to sell  
The path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell  
Right to the top  
Don't look back  
Turning to rags and giving the commodities a rain check_

The night was warm. His dark figure sat on the roof, looking out onto the night lights of Rome, _their _cat near his foot. He looked up to the stars and remembered something she had told him during her first lesson-_Rome is where I'd trip over nothing on the street looking at the sky, and end up with a bloody nose. _He stiffened as all the memories began to flow into his mind. It was extremely hard for him. Extremely, extremely hard. He was not exactly known as a man who would be able to move on after having a romantic interest in a short amount of time.

But he kept on going, trudging down the path to a new life. In some ways, he had already gotten that new life-he was now a vocal teacher for several people in Rome, a nice house, and slowly, he was letting go of his tormented past. But he knew he was far from the end, as long as diamonds and guns tortured his dreams. Sometimes, he would wake up in the middle of the night and think about giving up. _I have to keep going. It is what she wishes._

_I don't ever want to let you down  
I don't ever want to leave this town  
'Cause after all  
This city never sleeps at night _

He could not let her down. Every time he even thought about it, he could've sworn he heard a gunshot echo through caverns. And besides, how awkward would it be if they met-perhaps years from now-he never having moved on, and her with a husband and children? Very. And the last thing he would want for her-her life going smoothly, and then being popped by him arriving.

_It's time to begin, isn't it?  
I get a little bit bigger but then I'll admit  
I'm just the same as I was  
Now don't you understand  
That I'm never changing who I am_

Sometimes, he would catch himself doing odd things he'd never dream of doing when he lived under the Opera-he would go and stay outside on the streets, willingly socialize with people-he had stopped composing. Sometimes for hours, for days, for weeks. Once he had stopped working on a piece for 2 months! He could not let this happen! His friend loved the composer, not the melancholy man who lived in the past and dreamed of things that could not be. He hopped off the roof and began to go inside, but stopped at the door.

_It's time to begin, isn't it?  
I get a little bit bigger, but then I'll admit  
I'm just the same as I was  
Now don't you understand  
That I'm never changing who I am_

She hopped in her Aston Martin **(I was on a Bond marathon recently...don't judge.) **and began the 15-minute trek into the city, hair put up, red lipstick on, a poker face. She breathed slowly-_in, out, in, out-_and tried to grasp that feeling she always got when going to a city at night. The radio began to play a fast beat, and she smiled as the feeling slowly began to creep into her bones.

_This road never looked so lonely  
This house doesn't burn down slowly  
To ashes, to ashes _

He cursed himself and her silently under the moon. In her last words, she had made it sound so _easy, _so _simple, _to move on, start anew. But it was not! He thought of her and her life. When he lay down to sleep, was she waking up? When he tried to write a song and not think of her, was she singing onstage, another man waiting for her behind the scenes? It would never leave him alone.

She slowly got out of the car, the feeling of ecstasy suddenly wilting, and looked up at the old bomb shelter. **(Some nightclubs in Saint Petersburg actually are in old bomb shelters. If you want to know what nightclub she's in front of, I would say the techno club** **Tunnel.)** She shook the thoughts of regret and shame away. Her friends were inside. The last thing she needed was to be half-distracted while her wasted friends were telling her something...and then she'd be thrown into a shopping cart race, quite literally. She put a signature smirk on her face and marched inside.

_It's time to begin, isn't it?  
I get a little bit bigger but then I'll admit  
I'm just the same as I was  
Now don't you understand  
That I'm never changing who I am _

Only at night, when he was fully relaxed, ready to sleep, did she ever appear. Dreams, dreams, of when they had just started things. Dreams of him and her. **(GUESS THE REFERENCE!) **He could never seem to shake those memories, he mussed as he went inside and sat at his desk. Did she dream the same dreams too? Or were hers with someone else, a faceless unknown? He sighed and let the memories flow as he sat there. Suddenly, that old feeling came back. He took up a pen and a fresh sheet of paper.

_It's time to begin, isn't it?  
I get a little bit bigger but then I'll admit  
I'm just the same as I was  
Now don't you understand  
That I'm never changing who I am _

The bright lights of the club momentarily blinded her, but soon her eyes adjusted and she swung her head around, looking for someone. The one person who could always wipe her memory of those days, the one soldier that was her ticket out of misery whenever gray eyes met blue. Hands suddenly were held tight around her eyes, and a voice whispered over the lucid beat-

"Guess who."

She laughed and shoved the soldier away. "Hey!" "I thought you said you wouldn't be going out tonight. What made you change your mind?" She paused. "You know how I haven't been myself, I guess...?" The soldier nodded. "I don't want to change. At least, until I start performing in _Chicago." _"Well, in that case...do you want a martini?"

She smiled. "Shaken, not stirred. **(I was watching The Spy Who Loved Me...)**Thanks, Vladmiri."

**A/N: Well, well, well, who's this 'Vladmiri' I write of? If you guys ask for that sequel, you'll find out...Anyway, I hope you guys liked my oneshot. It's my first time writing one, so please tell me how it was! Thanks for reading, as always guys!**


End file.
